


loop(hole)

by leevee



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Blood and Injury, F/M, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Out of Character, Parallel Universes, Time Loop, You Have Been Warned, for a reason
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-25
Updated: 2016-07-25
Packaged: 2018-07-26 17:22:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7583071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leevee/pseuds/leevee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Their first question was "Can I ask you a favor?" every single time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	loop(hole)

**Author's Note:**

> Miraculous Ladybug created by Thomas Astruc  
> An alternate universe by leevee  
> The author does not take any financial profit from this story
> 
> Also, my first language is not English; expect bad grammar and unwanted feels.

The first time Chat Noir met Ladybug, she asked him to remember a number.

“Can you do me a favor?” she asked him along with the beep of their miraculous, right before he leapt away. “If I ask you for a number, give me ninety-nine.”

Huh? 99?

That was a weird favor, but Chat kept doing that anyway.

“Double nine. Okay.”

* * *

Sometimes, Marinette looked as if she could predict the future. At his first day of public school, she brought umbrella in sunny day (as the weather prediction said), and he thought that she was either a cautious one or a weirdo. The rain suddenly fell hard right after the final bells rang; she opened her umbrella and went home without showing any ‘I-told-you-so’ kind of expression.

Another time, the blue-haired girl brought extra pencil and lending it to Mylene, because Chloe has accidentally broke hers.

Today, Marinette came to school quite early, bringing a blue box with her. She went straight to Adrien’s chair.

“Happy birthday,” she said. “I hope you’ll wear it when the season comes.”

He did not even tell anyone about his birthday, not even Nino!

Well, at least the knitted scarf was pretty, and the material was super soft, and he could see her name signed with gold thread, unseen without keen eyes. Adrien rubbed his hand over the sign and smiled.

* * *

After the case with Timebreaker, the Paris’ superheroes did their patrol. It was actually unnecessary, but Adrien thought it would be nice to get accustomed to his baton and have a little escapade from his real life, so he did not protest.

Ladybug looked so miserable that night.

She used her yoyo as a phone, this time, and pressed it to her ear really close. Her expression was sad and empty at the same time. There are trails of wet water drops from her eyes to her cheeks.

“My Lady?” he asked, trying to snap her out of her thoughts. “Are you okay?”

It took her a couple more minutes to look up and said, “I guess.”

Chat was not convinced. “Please tell me what was wrong, buginette.”

She looked at him as if she was an old lady who had seen everything through her life, not a fifteen year old teenager like she was supposed to be. “What was your number, Chaton?”

He gulped a bit. “Ninety-nine.”

Ladybug took a deep breath and tied her yoyo back to her hip. “The next time would be the last,” she muttered in a soft voice—had not it been his enhanced hearing, Chat would not be able to hear her response.

Finally, the heroine looked up to him with a new expression: concern. “Next time, please don’t sacrifice yourself again, okay? I need you to defeat Papillon.”

Chat can only nodded.

* * *

Adrien looked at his consecutive loss after playing against Marinette in Ultimate Mecha Strike III. “Guess I can never beat you, huh?” he sighed, slightly dejected. “You are extremely good at this, Marinette. I can only burden you at the tournament.”

“Well, actually, I kind of cheating,” Marinette smiled sheepishly, while pulling something out of her pants’ pocket. It was a bracelet with red string and stones as ornaments. “This was a lucky charm I made when I was five with Maman. Whenever I keep it close to me, I will always win.” She put the charm on Adrien’s palm and close his fingers around it. “You can have it, too.”

“But this was—”

She shrugged it off. “I’m far more skilled than I was before, don’t worry. I think I can actually win without that bracelet.”

There was a knock on her trap door.

“But before we proof that, how about some quick bites? I know you want them.”

Adrien straightened his posture. Had she look over his drooling eyes over those fresh cookies? “I-no, I can’t, Nathalie will definitely scold me if she knows!”

Marinette winked her left eye mischievously. “Why should she know? You are way too thin, and you should have eat better.” She put away her controller and raised up from the chair. “The last to the plate would receive nothing!”

She made him felt like a little child again with a complete family, and that was surely a good thing.

* * *

The moment Ladybug jumped into the T-rex mouth, Chat screamed.

It was a mix of different emotion fused into one. Love, fear, anger... helplessness? He wanted to reach her, but he could not. Not anymore.

At least, until she used the item from her lucky charm to save herself.

“Please, don’t do that again,” he whispered when he hugged her instead of pounded her fist. “I can’t lose you.”

Somehow, both of them did not let each other go for quite a long time. Even his Lady, who usually brushed off his physical contacts, clung to him without hesitation. “I’m sorry to scare you that way,” she said. “But now you know why I don’t want you to sacrifice yourself, right?”

He fell into silence for a while before replied with an “I know”.

“Though I know you will definitely sacrifice yourself, I just hope you can tone it down just a little bit,” she said again. “Sometimes, I want you to let me take the hits. Miraculous Cure will heal it, anyway.”

He could not promise her. Never.

* * *

Falling for Ladybug was easy. She was destined to be her partner, she was amazing, and the outcome would have been very easy to guess; Chat would definitely fall for her in instance.

Time passed, Chat saw more on her imperfectness, and he realized that she was also a teenage girl as well as a superheroine. Of course Ladybug had flaws. She was impulsive when her feelings were heavily involved, and tried her best to not relying on others, although it meant she would brush him off. He loved his Lady even more for her flawed side.

Falling for Marinette was like a slow walk. He befriend the class president’s first, getting beaten by her in video games, becoming her personal Mandarin interpreter, and doing many other activities together before Adrien realized that he liked her, too. Marinette was amazing, her designs were captivating, and her attitude was that of a leader. She also fed him whenever he dropped by her balcony as Chat Noir.

_/ hey siri, google “can I fall in love with two people at the same time?” /_

_/ answer: yes. /_

It was a slow fall, but when he became aware of it, Adrien could not be happier. He was proud to have a heart big enough to love two people at the same time, and hoped that he could love both Ladybug and Marinette equally. It would be fine. It would be fine.

_(besides, he did not know if they were even loving him back; probably not.)_

* * *

Everytime Ladybug and Marinette felt low, they had the same coping mechanism. They would put their phone really on their ear really close, and listened to a voice that somehow calmed them down very quickly.

Adrien never figured out what was the voice.

* * *

The moment when Ladybug finally revealed her civilian identity was in the middle of their final battle against Papillon.

It has been two years since the first time he met her. Actually, today is their second anniversary.

His Lady’s transformation had come off after her Lucky Charm being used. Papillon was a tough opponent—they had used two Cataclysms and two Lucky Charms in the battle, and Ladybug had told her that she ran out of cookies.

Then this meant he would be fighting alone, and he might as well as finding out her real identity, since she had no excuse to left him in the battle.

There was pink light swirling besides him, and then there was Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

“Marinette?”

All this time, Adrien had been in love with one person instead of two. That explained why he fell for Marinette, and harder for Ladybug—he somehow could see Ladybug in Marinette, and Marinette in Ladybug.

“Hi, Chat,” she smiled sadly, trying to find her way out of the battle arena.

He would like to smile back and tell her “I’m glad it’s you”, but Papillon aimed the sharp end of his staff towards his beloved and he could not let it happen.

“Chat?”

He did not realize that his body had reflexively moved to hug her and protect her.

_(it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts)_

The staff pierced through his gut. The acid would corrode his body and seep through his organs, while the blood loss would also end his life. In every situation, he had actually broken his promise.

“Sorry,” he whispered.

Chat looked up and saw Marinette’s blue eyes. There was a slight sadness, but mostly he could see a knowing expression as she ran her hand through his back. Another set of fingers pulled his ring—his Miraculous—out and wear it on her own middle finger instead, causing his transformation to come off.

Plagg look at her knowingly too, and Adrien was confused. “You have two years left,” the kwami said.

“Then this would be my last attempt,” Marinette nodded. She kissed Adrien’s hair and smiled in an expression he could not comprehend. “I love you, Chat. I’ll try one last time to save you.”

“You!” Papillon shouted. “You were going to use the Miraculouses’ power on yourself?!”

“No matter how you try, you’ll never get to use them,” she said confidently. “Only Chat and I who will. Tikki, Plagg, transform me!”

There was a blinding white light, and Adrien saw black.

* * *

The first time Chat Noir met Ladybug, she asked him to remember a number.

“Can you do me a favor?” she asked him along with the beep of their miraculous, right before he leapt away. “If I ask you for a number, give me one hundred.”

* * *

Adrien finally got the chance to listen to the voice. Apparently, Marinette had fallen asleep while playing a recording on loop, earphones tucked on her ears. He put on one of the buds and restart the recording.

_/ Marinette, my Lady, I love you. I really do, buginette. If I ever lose you... no, when I lose you, I would be mad._

_This is kinda cruel, but I’m glad that you feel the same._

_While I never wanted to lose you, I also want you to be happy more than anything. So do you. Therefore, I made this proposal to you; a crazy idea that will ensure both of our happiness if—no, when. When the plan succeed, we would definitely be happy together. Tikki and Plagg have also given their blessing for this, so why not?_

_The power of Creation and Destruction can be used to turn back the time. Any time, as long as it was in the past. Also, apparently, parallel universe exist._

_Let’s find a timeline where we survive and live happily together._

_Shall we? /_

Chat Noir’s voice was happy, but there was a tint of sorrow in his speech. Those speech was something he never voiced before, so it must have been from previous timelines.

That explained why Marinette seemed to have omniscience.

Why Ladybug never wanted her Chat to be a martyr.

Tears were dropping from Adrien’s green orbs.

* * *

The next day, every single person in Adrien’s class freaked out to see his brand new ear piercings.

Marinette said nothing about it except for a “It suits you”.

* * *

Chat should have known.

The final battle against Papillon gave him bad vibes. Is this the last time he would see Ladybug? Is he... going to die in this battle, causing her to turn back the time again?

Another feeling that he tried to pressed down even further was a feeling that it was actually his turn to go back.

Ladybug transformation’s came off. There was no cookies left to feed her kwami, she said before.

Although Chat had already knew her real identity, this was actually his first time seeing her detransformed. It caught his breath because, how stunning it was, to watch her Lady engulfed in soft pink light and slowly showing her true self.

It was incredibly stunning that he did not notice the sharp end of Papillon’s staff directed towards him.

“Chat, watch out!”

It was incredibly stunning that he did not prepare himself to protect his Lady.

“Marinette!”

The crimson color of her blood was a couple shade darker than her magical suit. Even in pain, his Lady was still beautiful, except for the staff that impaled her.

“Adrien,” she whispered in pain, “can you... do me... a favor?”

He nodded, held her closer to his chest and cradled her. Papillon was another hindrance to be dealt another day; right now, Marinette needed his attention the most.

If he dared to let out a sound, it would be croak.

“Don’t restart the count.”

Then when Marinette gave him the number 100, had she been trapped in this loop for a hundred times?

“She had been doing this for twenty times, each loop took two years to finish,” Tikki popped out from Marinette’s back. “It took toll on her energy. Even though you saved her, her life force would not even be able to sustain her for another day, so she cannot go through another loop. You would have to replace her role now, and she would replace your role after twenty more loops.”

Adrien realized that both Marinette and Tikki did not ask him if he wanted to turn back the time or not. Then again, according to the recording in Marinette’s phone, they had both promised to each other. Even though they did the promise in another timeline, Adrien could not think any reason to revoke it.

He caressed her dark blue hair, the pigtails had come undone. He tied them back as proper as he could and felt her breathing slowed down.

“I—I will, Marinette.” He sank in his thought for a while and kissed her forehead. “I love you.”

She smiled in peace. Her body became limp.

There was no need for words. Adrien had known all along.

He would let his Lady rested for the next twenty loops. No, he would definitely find the happy ending they deserved.

* * *

The first time Ladybug met Chat Noir, he asked her to remember a number.

“Can you do me a favor?” he asked her along with the beep of their miraculous, right before he leapt away. “If I ask you for a number, give me a hundred and one.”

The new heroine scrunched her forehead in deep thought and gave him a remark he would never forgot. “ _101 Dalmations_? I thought cats hate dogs.”

He laughed it off and extended his baton, ready to jump away.

**Author's Note:**

> or, guidance on how to procrastinate when you were supposed to learn for finals. After all, I never listened to the lecture. I need to learn. But noooo this idea kept popping out.


End file.
